Illinois Football: 2022 OT Cade Goldman announces Illini offer

There is still work left to do on the class of 2021, but the Illinois football team is trying to build the class of 2022 at the same time.

One worry for me after the upcoming 2020 campaign is the fact we are losing so much talent on the offensive line. Having both of our starting tackles in Vederian Lowe and Alex Palczewski and our starting center in Doug Kramer all graduate will hurt the team. I am not even mentioning the possibility for our left guard, Kendrick Green, to head to the NFL or our right guard, possibly Blake Jeresaty, departing after his graduate transfer year.

The Illinois starting line in 2020 is going to be one of the best we have ever seen in Champaign. But we are going to need to replace these talented hogs up front over the next couple of years. Snagging someone like Cade Goldman would help fill out the depth chart.

Goldman is a 6-foot-4, 260-pound offensive tackle from Hickory Ridge High School and resides in Harrisburg, North Carolina. He isn’t rated or ranked by 247Sports, but the talented offensive lineman is already getting some recruiting attention.

The past few months have been busy for Goldman. The first scholarship offer he received was from Louisville back on February 26. Since then, a few other teams have come in with an offer including the likes of both Akron and Virginia. This past Friday, Goldman took to Twitter to announce that Illinois is the latest to get involved in his recruitment. The Illini ended up offering the big man a scholarship.

Tale of the Tape

It is hard to really gauge where Goldman will play at the college level. In high school, he is bigger than everyone, so he is naturally a tackle. But I believe his size fits better as a guard or center at the next level.

Honestly, his game reminds me a lot of Kendrick Green. Goldman is quick off the line, which will enable him to get into the defender’s pads and turn his opponent outward. This opens up huge gaps for the ball carrier.

The quickness that Goldman brings to the table will also help when he is asked to pull, if he becomes a guard at Illinois. Being quick off the line enables him to get around the tackle and out front of the running back to help block on sweeps and counters. This would be huge for the Illini.

I love this offer by Illinois. With the recruiting attention he is getting so far, I would imagine Goldman ends up being ranked inside the top 1200 nationally. Let’s rebuild this offensive line back to one of the best in the nation.